HBO to drop coverage

NEW YORK {AP} The strawberries and cream have been great, but 25 years at Wimbledon was enough for HBO.

The cable network will not renew its contract with the grass-court classic after a quarter-century of coverage, and there will be no shortage of bidders to pick up tennis' most prestigious tournament.

Time Warner sports president Seth Abraham said HBO's decision had nothing to do with ratings or money. The network paid $50,000 a year when it started with Wimbledon in 1975, while the current five-year deal averaged about $8 million a year. Ratings have been steady if unspectacular.

"As I look ahead, I felt the need to refresh our schedule," Abraham said Monday from his London hotel room. "If we had tried to renew Wimbledon, then we wouldn't have been able to try other new things."

Abraham would not elaborate on his plans to acquire replacement programming, but did say that it would not involve another tennis tournament.

"Wimbledon is still the elite tennis tournament in the world and one of the top 10 sporting events," he added.

Although ratings had fallen to a 1.6 in 1997, HBO posted a 1.9 last year after making a decision to devote more of its coverage to women players.

Abraham said he expects this year's ratings to be about the same, even with Andre Agassi's success.

But ratings aren't as important for HBO as with other networks because HBO does not have advertising and advertising is driven by ratings.

Abraham said he made the decision not to renew about two weeks before the tournament began and flew to England to tell club chairman John Curry and chief executive officer Christopher Gorringe that HBO would be going in a different direction.